What is Utility Grade?Utility grade flooring Will have defects, knots, open knots, missing tongues, machine burns, splits in the wood and short pieces (12"-8").Sold as is-no warranty, no returns, no cancellations.

This product comes in square-edge or v-groove and may be mixed product. Please note unfinished flooring is sold in open, strapped bundles and not sold in boxes. This product must be purchased in bundles. Bundle size may vary.

This material is on an accumulation basis which means this item may have an excessive wait time.

Questions?Please allow us to assist you with any questions and/or concerns.Click here to go to Flooring 101, or call 1-800-HARDWOOD to speak to one of our flooring experts.We will be glad to help you select the appropriate products for your commercial or residential remodeling project.

I'm remodeling my old carriage house. I had some white rustic oak left over from a previous job, but not enough to finish the new project. All they had in stock was utility grade, so I got it. Turned out great for a hundred year old carriage house, its very fitting. I mixed the rustic white oak and the utility together. It took a bit longer, but not a lot difference between the two. If you do a little planning you can use it all with very little waste, I would say less then 5% waste. The utility has some big knots, missing tongs, shorts pieces and more red oak then white oak. I was shocked at what you get for the price, I will use it again in my next project

We used this flooring in our bunkhouse, so we were looking for something that was rustic but durable. The pieces are unfinished, and for the most part short, they may have worm holes and knots in them but for the purpose we were using it for it fit the bill, I wouldn't use this in my home, but it was perfect for the bunkhouse.

Wow , I am so glad to be done with this . This is not for the faint of heart by all means . I had other issues regarding getting my floor leveled first which was a complete nightmare. Because Some areas were off by 1 7/8" . They receommend you buy more which I did . And I struggled towards the end of the room locating pieces that were usable. I would recommend this floor to anyone that is not a perfectionist. I am happy considering the cost. It looks rustic and very unique .

once u put down the tar paper and get a few rows done, u will want to do more rooms like I did. the only problem is getting more...you will wait awhile and then wait some more like me so order enough to do your job.

i used this through out my condo. it turned out exactly as planned. i like it with just semi gloss water based urethane clear coat.make sure you have lots of time and order a least 50% more than you need. i used the rest for firewood.

Product has a lot of defects, I was able to use less than 1/2 the bundle of flooring I purchased. Be aware that unless you want a VERY rustic result, you will need to order twice as much to get enough usable pieces.

Service and delivery comments:

Product takes a long time to get. They tell you that it is an "accumulated product" so don't believe any delivery estimates. I was told 2 weeks, had to call three times over 8 weeks to get status of the order, and by the way, they charged my card 2 days after the order was placed! Finally had to pay extra for freight to get it in from another store.

This floor install is not for the faint-of-heart! My husband and I have installed laminate flooring in the past with good results, so we figured this wouldn't be so bad.

The install took us about a solid 18 hours for 326 sq ft, and that's with both of us cutting and nailing. It's best to have at least 2 people on this so one can finish up one row while the next person is started on the next row down. All in all, it looks AMAZING, although I'm sore in places I forgot I had! It really looks great once it's finished, and it seems to be very durable.

I know that LL recommends a lot of extra square footage due to the higher than normal waste on this product, but a lot of the pieces that have knots and holes or other issues can be cut down and used as end pieces, for example, so our waste wasn't bad. In face, we have a lot of flooring left over so we'll be using it in adjoining rooms.

Note that the pieces are not all uniform length, and some of them have crayon or chalk marks on them, but they should sand out. Some of the pieces are also not milled perfectly, so you might have some tapering or a difference in width on some boards. You just have to look at them closely before installing.

This floor is great for an older home as it is very similar to what would be in a turn-of-the- century house. We truly love it, and are happy with our purchase. Once installed, this doesn't look like a utility floor at all. It looks like it cost us thousands, and I'm sure it will look even better sanded and stained.

We have half our house done now and I LOVE this floor! It has great character and coloration. This has been very easy to layout and install. I lay it out and my husband nails it in. We are very pleased with this purchase. A lot of reviews said there was waste. We have had little waste. My husband has a router and can fix the pieces that were shaved off on the ends, but we haven't even had to do this yet and don't think we will. I would highly recommend this flooring - and it was a great price too!

Service and delivery comments:

Delivery time was longer than I was originally told. Product did arrive in good condition.Was not given our full order upon pickup. My husband even questioned them on what we should be getting and they assured us that we had all we should. Upon arriving home (3 hour drive) we counted it up and we were short a lot. I called, they fixed it quickly, but we had to drive all the way back (a whole other days work wasted), they did give us a refund of some sort that appeased my husband. All in all it was an ok experience - they could work on making sure orders are correct at time of pickup though.

I built a countertop and bar top from this stuff and it came out great. If you go into this with your eyes wide open realizing you are going to have to throw some away, you will be quite happy. I had about 25% waste after cutting out some bad spots. The good pieces will end up pretty short or are pretty short "out of the box." One thing I did not realize though is that there really are some pieces that are totally unusable for anything but firewood (which it is great for, incidentally). I figured, I can live with some knots and cracks, etc. NO. There is some that is just plain UNUSABLE! Not too many, but you WILL have firewood left over. Probably around 5-10% is like this. So be aware. Another 15% is perfect (although short) and the rest is somehwere in the middle - some can be salvaged by cutting the bad spots out, some could be ripped for an edge, etc. For price though, it is pretty unbelieveable and I would definitely buy it again.

This product question would be better answered by our Sales Department, they are more familiar with all of our flooring products and can better assist you with your questions.Please call our Sales Dept. @ (800) 476-0007. Thank you for your inquiry.

Answered on 7/30/2014 by Anonymous

Q:

What grit of sanding pads should I use to prepare this floor to stain and poly?

Utility grade flooring Will have defects, knots, open knots, missing tongues, machine burns, splits in the wood and short pieces (12"-8").Sold as is-no warranty, no returns, no cancellations.Thank you for your inquiry

This is a utility product and they and can vary greatly. This product question would be better answered by our Sales Department, they are more familiar with all of our flooring products and can better assist you with your questions. Please call our Sales Dept. @ (800) 476-0007 for pricing and availability. Thank you for your inquiry.

I am installing this over a painted concrete slab. Can this be glued down to the concrete, or is there another installation method recommended? Also, I am installing this over plywood on the second floor of my home. How does it need to be installed over the plywood? Are there other materials that need to be put in between? Can it be glued to the plywood, or do I need to buy a nail gun?

I have been told by others that have had this type of flooring that if they spilled something on it that you have to wipe it up right away, or the floor will sell up where it is wet. I have kids that will be spilling on it and I need to know if this is true. If this is true is there anything to buy to do a overcoat to seal it so this doesn't happen